


In Darkness, In Silence

by elirwen



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sensory Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21964777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elirwen/pseuds/elirwen
Summary: Merlin gets abducted and Arthur needs to get him back before it's too late.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 437
Collections: Merlin Holidays 2019





	In Darkness, In Silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tayathestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tayathestrange/gifts).



> Dear Tayathestrange, I hope my offering will please you and at least somewhat satisfy your hurt/comfort needs. Happy holidays!

“I have his location,” Morgana says, her voice slightly slurred as she emerges from the deep trance.

Arthur breaks his restless pacing in favour of rushing towards her. He leans over the map spread over the table.

They were able to narrow down the area to just London a day before and then further to East London hours ago, but searching for the precise location proved to be extremely difficult, demanding several druids to feed their power to Morgana as she became the focus point of the locating spell. 

The mark pinpointing the location sits close to the river in a block of what used to be industrial buildings, now turned into housing.

“Good job, everyone,” Arthur says, sliding the map towards Gwen who left her own fruitless search the moment Morgana spoke. “Get me anything you can find about that building and any recordings from surveillance cameras nearby,” he tells her.

Gwen nods and hurries towards her computer nest.

“And you get some rest,” he directs at Morgana and the druids. “I'll need you to support us remotely once we head out.”

“I want to go with you,” Morgana objects.

“We need your scrying expertise more than we need brute magic right now,” Arthur counters. “I'm not underestimating you abilities or being overprotective. I really need you here.”

“Alright,” Morgana says, stands up and wraps Arthur in a hug. “Give them hell,” she says and pulls him tighter to her body before letting go and heading out of the room.

***

It takes four more hours before they’re ready to head out. One part of Arthur would simply charge at the building and tear through it with no plan whatsoever, but he knows they need to know what they’ll be getting into. They can’t afford to fail.

Their gear has been ready since the day before. They only need to choose the specific items most suitable for the mission at hand. More time is spent on learning the layout of the building and the neighbourhood and discussing the possible tactics they might use. 

They’re going in mostly blind because there is a magical field covering the building. They’ll need to get rid of it fast, otherwise Morgana won’t have any way to assist them. She returned to help with the preparations after taking a short power nap and has been discussing the magic field issue with Mordred and Gilli ever since.

“Four men just entered the building,” Gwen calls out. “They carried a big box.”

She re-plays the footage once they’re all gathered around her. 

The box is big indeed. Big enough for a person.

“They mean to move him,” Gwaine gives voice to his thoughts.

“We’re heading out now,” Arthur orders and everyone scatters to quickly collect the rest of their gear before heading to the cars. “Keep watching,” Arthur tells Gwen even though he knows he doesn’t really need to and follows his team.

***

“The field is down,” Mordred announces as they sneak towards the back entrance to the building. 

“We’re going in,” Arthur orders and Gilli blasts the door open. 

***

“He’s two floors under you. Take the stairs to your right,” Morgana instructs him through his earpiece.

He runs down as instructed, taking down a guy in the stairwell and then another as he runs through the long corridor on the floor Morgana sent him to. He can hear Mordred and Gwaine following right behind, others relaying status updates on their situation from other parts of the building through the shared channel.

“Turn right and then left. Third door on the left,” Morgana says.

They run faster.

***

The door is open, two men carrying the huge box they’ve seen on the video surveillance out of the room. Two more men guarding the entrance shout the moment they see Arthur and his men heading their way and immediately start firing in their direction but the bullets stop against the shield Mordred has built around them. 

The men carrying the box drop it and it hits the ground hard. Arthur’s already white hot rage burns even whiter. The men before them don’t stand a chance.

***

“I can’t open the lock without the key, not fast at least,” Mordred says, studying the locking mechanism on the box.

“One of them has to have it,” Gwaine says, quickly looking through the pockets of the first man who carried the box, now lying dead on the floor, the deep neck wound still sluggishly oozing blood. 

Arthur does the same with the second guy.

“I have it,” he says soon after, pulling a key from an inside pocket of the guy’s jacket.

He quickly jams it into the lock, heaving a sigh of relief when it actually turns and the lock clicks open. They wrench the lid up and…

“Shit… Those fuckers!” Gwaine gives words to what Arthur is thinking but can’t get past his tightly closed throat.

“We have him,” Mordred says over the channel, cluing in that Arthur isn’t at full capacity right at that moment. “I repeat, we have Merlin.”

Merlin doesn’t react to them at all, pressing himself against the wall of the box. His hands are bound together and he has them pressed tightly to his chest that rises and falls with his panicked breathing. There’s a magic-blocking collar around his neck. His shirt is torn in several places and soaked with blood, crusty and coppery red now. Bruises cover his arms and Arthur doesn’t doubt they cover the rest of his body too. The fly on his trousers is open. Arthur resolutely doesn’t think about what it might implicate. Merlin’s feet are bare and covered in tiny cuts and small circular burns. His face seems to be clear of any damage but there’s a thick bandana wrapped around his eyes and covering his ears.

“Merlin,” Arthur breathes out at last, reaching out to remove the bandana, but the moment he touches it Merlin jerks back, hitting his head against the wall of the box. “It’s just me. You’re safe,” Arthur says, trying again to remove the blindfold only to find the fabric stuck to Merlin’s skin.

Merlin’s panic grows, his breath hitching as he mouth a silent ‘no’ over and over.

“Let me have a look,” Mordred says, moving his hands over the blindfold without actually touching it. “It’s powerful magic,” he says. “It blocks not only his sight but also his hearing. I can’t get it off him here.”

“Alright, let’s get him out,” Arthur says. “Take his legs,” he directs at Gwaine.

Merlin isn’t making their efforts easier for them as he tries to squirm away but he’s not very strong at the moment so it’s not exactly hard to overpower him. Arthur feels guilty for causing him further distress but they don’t really have any other choice. They can’t stay here long. 

As Gwaine grips Merlin’s legs and lifts, Merlin cries out in pain and then again when Arthur pulls him up by the armpits. He grows heavy a few seconds later as his body can’t take any more and he passes out. 

“I’m sorry,” Arthur keeps repeating in hushed tone as he hurries through the building towards the exit, no matter that Merlin can’t hear him.

***

Merlin wakes up as they settle in their escape vehicle, a speed boat that’ll get them some distance up the stream and across where they have a car waiting for them. At first he just groans, moving only minutely, but then he tenses, doesn’t let a single sound escape his lips.

Arthur is holding him against his chest and he runs his hand over Merlin’s face the way he does when there’s nothing to do but relax and enjoy each other’s company. He hopes Merlin will recognize his touch or at least recognizes they mean him no harm. 

Then he gets an idea. He pulls off his glove from his left hand and reaches for Merlin’s hand with his right. Merlin resist but all he needs is a bit of space to slip his left hand under Merlin’s fingers, to gently guide him towards his index finger and the ring that sits on it. It takes a while before Merlin stops fighting him and lets himself just feel but once he does it’s just a matter of seconds before his fingers run over the surface of Arthur’s ring like they did so many times before, playing with the spinning circlets encircling the wider band underneath them.

“Arthur?” he asks, barely audible.

“Yes, it’s me,” Arthur says in vain, squeezing Merlin’s hand and pressing a kiss to his hair. 

He tries to move, to turn around in Arthur’s arms, but his injuries make themselves known and he yelps in pain, slumping back and sinking further into Arthur’s embrace as he gently pets him where he doesn’t hurt, whispering soothing words against Merlin’s skin and hoping they’lll be felt at least if not heard.

***

“He’s going to be fine,” Gaius assures him as Arthur settles Merlin on the bed.

“Stay, please, don’t go,” Merlin pleads, gripping Arthur’s hand like a lifeline and Arthur wastes no time before he climbs on the bed with him.

They remove the magic suppressor first as they know magic is what Merlin needs the most to heal. Arthur holds him through his tremors as magic fills his limbs once more.

When the worst passes, Arthur props Merlin up so that he can drink Gaius’ potions. First for pain relief. Second to help with healing. Third a calming draught. Merlin mumbles complaints about the foul taste of the concoctions but the effects are almost instant and he grows pliant in Arthur’s arms, slipping into easy sleep.

They cut his shirt off while he dozes, washing away the dried blood and cleaning the wounds with non-stinging antiseptics and utmost gentleness. First on his front and then carefully turning him onto his stomach and treating his back. 

His ribs are badly bruised and some of them are cracked but they can merely wait for those to heal, keeping Merlin as comfortable as possible. 

Sometimes Merlin stirs, his brows furrowing in discomfort and a sigh or a pain-filled moan slipping past his lips, but pausing their ministrations and comforting him with soothing touches is all that’s needed to guide him back to deeper slumber. 

They cut off Merlin’s trousers next. Arthur is dreading of what they might find there but there are just bruises. If Merlin was raped there isn’t any obvious sign of it. 

Merlin’s right ankle is swollen and heavily bruised. Hopefully it might be just a sprain and nothing is broken but even Gaius’ gentle prodding is painful enough to drag Merlin out of sleep and make him flinch away. 

Arthur lies down and pulls Merlin on top of him, petting his hair and neck with one hand and his back with the other while Merlin presses his face against Arthur’s neck, his fingers digging into Arthur’s side as Gaius treats the wounds on his feet and bandages his ankle.

***

They dim the lights when it’s time to remove the blindfold and Mordred recites the spell carefully, his palms barely touching the black fabric. 

“Can you hear me?” he asks when he’s done chanting.

“Yes,” Merlin says and it fills Arthur with nearly as much joy as when the same word fell from Merlin’s lips as they exchanged their marriage vows. 

“Do you want me to take the blindfold off? We dimmed the lights to make it easier,” Arthur says.

“Yeah,” Merlin says, lifting his head so that Arthur can slide the fabric off his head. 

He keeps his eyes scrunched shut for a moment, then slowly blinks them open and shuts them again, covers them with his hands. Arthur would love to do something to help but all he can do right now is wait for Merlin to get used to seeing again.

***

“Just two days…” Merlin says. “It felt like forever. They put the blindfold on me after the first round of beatings. Couldn’t have been more than two hours after they grabbed me.”

Arthur hands him a fresh round of potions to drink. Merlin’s hands are shaking slightly but they’re steady enough to finish the task unassisted.

“They force fed me gods know what and dragged me off for regular bathroom breaks in between the lovely torture sessions,” he continues, grimacing both at the taste of the potion and the memory.

“Did they…?” Arthur trails off.

He needs to know but it’s not easy to ask.

“Hmmm?” Merlin prompts.

“Your fly was open when we found you,” Arthur says. “Did they force themselves on you?”

“No, not really.” 

“Not really?” Arthur doesn’t like the answer being this vague.

“They groped me sometimes and I think one of them was about to go for it but then they stuffed me into the box,,” Merlin says with a shudder of disgust.

“At least one good thing that came out of that box,” Arthur says, leaning down and pressing a chaste kiss to Merlin’s lips. 

***

“I still don’t understand why Daegal would turn on us,” Merlin says, snuggled to Arthur under the covers. 

“Neither do I,” Arthur admits. “But I also don’t understand why an organization hating magic uses magic for its own purposes.”

“They’re hypocrites,” Merlin mumbles, on the verge of falling asleep.

“That they are,” Arthur agrees.

“Do you think they’ll try again?”

“I don’t think my father will ever get over you luring me away from his hate campaign,” Arthur says.

“And for making you like cock,” Merlin says, grinning.

“Yeah, that too.” Arthur laughs. 

***

No matter how tired he is, Arthur can’t sleep. He can’t keep his eyes off Merlin, snuggled to his chest, his eyelids fluttering from time to time as he dreams. He’s been rubbing circles into Merlin’s back ever since he started dozing off, as much for Merlin’s comfort as for his own.

He presses a kiss to Merlin’s hair. 

He could have lost him. No more calm moments like this, no more of Merlin’s warmth, his love.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he whispers into Merlin’s hair. 

“You’ll never have to find out,” Merlin mumbles back, less asleep than Arthur thought.

“Hopefully,” Arthur adds.

“You saved me,” Merlin says. “You’d save me again. Just like I’ll always save you.”

“What if he…” Arthur starts but Merlin silences him with a kiss.

“I know you worry. I’m scared too,” Merlin says, running his fingers through Arthur’s hair. “But I’m safe now and you need to rest. We both do.”

“I know,” Arthur says, feeling ashamed that Merlin comforts him in a situation like this. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to fall asleep though.”

“I can help with that,” Merlin says, tracing his fingers along Arthur’s temples, his eyes tinged with gold.

Arthur sinks deeper into the mattress as his worries finally take a step back and let him relax.

“Handy,” he mumbles, wrapping his arms around Merlin once he settles against him more comfortably. “Lucky I married you.”

He hears Merlin’s chuckle and feels him pressing a kiss to his shoulder, but he’s already drifting away, with Merlin safe in his arms and peace in his heart.


End file.
